Daily Deviation

Given 2013-08-26

Suggester Says: "This photograph is as interesting as amazing! It's taken in western Nepal and the carvings in the rocks are apparently Buddhist scripture and symbology. I've never seen anything like this before. It intrigues me."
Mani wall near Chharka Bhot by *Dominion-Photography (
Suggested by Anoya and Featured by
Kaz-D)

No, not the border. You see hundreds of mani walls in the Himalaya of Nepal. The rock carving and types of rock used varied quite a lot from region to region. Mani walls are Buddhist devotional structures that are usually topped with carved rocks. The carvings are Buddhist scripture and symbology. When you walk past them you must keep the mani wall (or stupa or kani) on your right, unless you are in an area that is Bön: they walk the opposite way (wall, stupa, kani on your left).

No tripod. This was in the middle of a 61 day high altitude trek. Although I wanted to take my tripod, I just couldn't have carried it along with all the other stuff I needed (including a fairly large solar panel to charge my camera batteries). So I make do. The other thing about trekking is that you don't often get to hang around and wait for good light, luckily this one was taken right next to our campsite!

Camera settings are at right (down the bottom). Cheers for the comments, I appreciate them.

Just wow! Thanks to everyone who has faved or watched me over the last few years. I finally feel like my photography is starting to get closer to my vision. Hopefully I have a few more cool things to show everyone really soon.

Man-made. Mani walls are Buddhist devotional structures that are usually topped with carved rocks. The carvings are Buddhist scripture and symbology. When you walk past them you must keep the mani wall (or stupa or Kani) on your right, unless you are in an area that is Bön: they walk the opposite way (wall, stupa, Kani on your left).

You see hundreds of mani walls in the Himalaya of Nepal. The rock carving and types of rock used varied quite a lot from region to region. They're not quite so common in other countries. Didn't see any in Bhutan despite it being a Buddhist kingdom. They do have a lot of stupas though.